2 - How Did Psychology Gain Recognition?

For centuries, psychological thought has held the attention of great philosophical thinkers as well as average citizens. Some of the brilliant Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had some fascinating ideas about the nature of human behaviour. However, their theories were speculative and unproven. As long as psychological ideas were untested theories, psychology was not given recognition and status as a worthy subject.

Wilhelm Wundt

In 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany, an important development occurred that gave psychology a new beginning. A German psychologist named Wilhelm Wundt (pronounced voont) decided to establish the first real psychological laboratory so that many of the thought-provoking theories that had been debated for years could actually be tested. Moving psychology into the category of an experimental science was a very significant step. Establishing a laboratory to test data led to a major shift in psychology from merely being a collection of philosophical ideas to becoming an avenue for experimentation and research.

 

 

Wilhelm Wundt  
German Psychologist  

Wundt declared that the main task of psychology was to study the mind. He was interested in examining the relationship between sensations that a person experiences (such as warmness in temperature, brightness of lighting) and the effect these factors have on judgments the person makes. 

Wundt’s psychological laboratory was busy investigating such factors as sensations, feelings, attention (awareness of an event), perception (the data one absorbs), reaction time (responses to an event), and association (similar factors that are grouped together). Wundt’s laboratory tests, although simple and sometimes incomplete attained the objective of giving psychology an acceptance it lacked earlier.

There are Five Major Approaches in Psychology which include Biological, Psychodynamic, Behavioural, Cognitive and Humanistic.